Voluntary programs in Europe

Measure implementation in the private and public sector is crucial in order to effectively address climate change and promote sustainable development. In that direction, several governments are placing greenhouse gas reporting programs, which can be either voluntary or mandatory at different levels (regional, national and subnational).

Since the end of the 1990s, several mandatory schemes have emerged on GHG emissions measuring and reporting and there has been a requirement for climate change related information by several stakeholders, such as governments, consumers, investors, researchers, environmental organisations, policy makers etc. Also, several voluntary programs have been established by governments, non-governmental organizations or business associations (Sources: WRI/WBG[1], OECD/CDSB[2]).

At European level, except for the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, the greatest progress on climate change reporting schemes can be observed in the United Kingdom and France. For the rest of the EU Member States and in particular in the countries of the project partners participating in the LIFE Clim’Foot project, Italy has been involved in voluntary initiatives in the private sector; while the other countries (Croatia, Greece and Hungary) have no prior experience.

As a result, the LIFE Clim’Foot project aims at developing voluntary programs in order to support both public and private organisations to calculate and/or reduce their carbon footprints.